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Education and students in the new higher
education environment
HEFCE Annual Meeting22 November 2012
Heather Fry, Director (Education, Participation and Students)
Key policy drivers for education and students• De-regulation• Social mobility • Control of finance • Greater student choice and
influence in a more marketised system, where the student will eventually pay more towards their HE
Five illustrative areas of policy• Risk-based quality assurance • Joint national strategy for access and student success• Student number control• Public information about higher education• The ‘collective student interest’
Quality Assessment : RBQA
• Driver: de-regulation• Consultation will lead to changes being introduced in AY 2013-14
Main Features:• 6 or 4 year gap; no mid-cycle review; concerns scheme prominent;
quality enhancement and student engagement emphasised
• Drivers: social mobility (and return for investment)
• OFFA and HEFCE will deliver to BIS early Autumn 2013
• Will be based on evidence and expert opinion
• It will encompass: – diverse types of students
– the role of IAG
– collaborative outreach
– effective forms of support for individual students
– raising aspiration and attainment
– achieving continuation and successful outcomes for students
A joint national strategy for access and student success
• Drivers: control of finance; de-regulation; increased student choice
• Aims achieved through three technical features that HEFCE operates:
i. CORE: setting a core number of entrants that each institution should not exceed
ii. HIGH GRADES: students with qualifications on an exempt list do not count within the core
iii. MARGIN: created to re-distribute numbers to new/less expensive providers
• Institutions are autonomous in their admissions decisions
Student Number Control policy
Public information
Drivers: student choice and influence in a more marketised system
•New Unistats launched this year incorporates the KIS
•The start of a journey
http://unistats.direct.gov.uk
• Driver: a more marketised system
• 2011 White Paper – HEFCE as ‘the student champion’
• Not new work for HEFCE, but a new prominence
• HEFCE will not have new powers, will continue to work with ‘soft powers’ of good practice, discussion etc
HEFCE’s role in the student interestPromoting and protecting the collective student interest
• Continuing change
• Interactions and pace likely to produce ‘unintended consequences’
• Need for monitoring and revisions
• Competiveness becomes a stronger theme
• Impact will continue and probably pick up pace
Implications
Thank you for [email protected]
